UN chief condemns Donald Trump’s Muslim travel curbs

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump’s travel restrictions on seven Muslim-majority countries and freeze on refugee resettlement should be lifted sooner rather than later.

“This is not the way to best protect the US or any other country in relation to the serious concerns that exist about possible terrorist infiltration,” Mr Guterres said to reporters.

“I don’t think this is the effective way to do so. I think that these measures should be removed sooner rather than later.”

His statement followed a warning on Wednesday from UN experts that asylum-seekers could face torture if they are not given safe harbour in the US and a call from the Vatican for openness to other cultures, adding to a drumbeat of international criticism of Mr Trump’s travel curbs.

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